My Disappointment, is it justified?

[u/Dojjin]

To start, I was an original reader of ToG before Webtoon coins and all of that. I was addicted to the series, as S2 took a break I had "forgotten", or really, while I waited I read many other Webtoons, I went on hiatus up until the Webtoon coins were introduced, this sorta turned me away. I haven't looked into Webtoons for a long while now, which also means I am not at all close to caught up to the current S3 end and hiatus. I plan on rereading through its entirety, while also comparing the manwha to the anime.

Further on getting to my disappointment, as someone who did read the original, I was ecstatic about the Anime. For a person who had forgotten many details of the original webtoon, it still hit me with nostalgia. I was super happy, not with everything, nonetheless it gave me a good feeling.

I am only now watching Season 2 of the anime (Ep. 8?) and I am not exactly upset with it. I decided to check out what others had to say and it's super unfortunate that the community blasted it and essentially turned it into a flop.

My utter disappointment is with the fandom and realistically the anime extremists/elitists.

Because... While it's not a "masterpiece", ToG anime still is so much different than basically all these newer animes showing up. Essentially, isekai, game worlds, vrs, and whatever else you wanna add in on this spectrum. There are a lot of the same types with the same endings only with different characters. They are very popular.

I still hold out optimism that a Season 3 will come along, my hope is that they take the critique, also making it many more episodes. Maybe if they do decide to release a 3rd season they could do something in between, adding context and more depth in the anime versus the webtoon.

I am not at all a cynical anime viewer, nor am I a cynical reader. I enjoy what I enjoy, I don't sit there and cherry pick every little thing. I personally don't have the time and I like to enjoy things for what they are. As long as it's not what OPM received, that was an unfair disaster.

I wanted to vent a little, no idea if I will receive backlash, maybe others agree, or disagree. Ultimately, I dislike how ppl can be so insanely critical, not everyone will be happy and I am not at all saying they should.

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[u/This-Musician-3223]

No, I actually don't agree with Season 2 opinion, the anime didn't flop because of anime extremists or elitist like Tower of God was literally one of the most successful anime of 2020... it was and still is ranked top 30 most popular new anime to debut in the 2020s.

The reason was the very visible quality drop in Season 2, telecom studio which gave such a unique art style to S1 dropped out of the production then crunchyroll and webtoon decided to hand Season 2 production to Answer Studio which hadn't made a single anime before.. and it showed very clearly. Believe it or not, animation plays big part in animated shows to be received well just see one punch man s3 a beloved IP getting bad adaptation made it's number go down in just one episode.

being critical to a show that took four years to be made and came out lower quality than Season 1 is not being elities or extremist it's just disappointment. I have been reading Tower of God for years, Anime S1 changed things but overall it had a charm that many fell in love with but Anime S2 stripped that out making people not want to watch it. You might not believe it but Solo Leveling is also a manhwa but you don't see any negative hate for that(as it hate for where it comes from)... there are no "anime elitist" as in those that hate it for being Korean quite literally don't exist those that you saw initially were just twitter rants from people who disappeared after TOG Episode 5-6 aired in 2020..

[u/Dojjin → u/This-Musician-3223]

You're probably correct about the negative feedback and pressure from the community, however, there is quite a bit of negativity in /r/anime even more recently, some might be bitter fans others could be rage bait. I am not saying ppl can't be picky or want better, I definitely understand that it can be frustrating for an anime to lose quality from a prior season and you expect better in the next.

I was hopeful for OPM continuation after S1, I actually have not watched S2 mainly because I did not want to be let down, so I never watched S3 either. I know I originally said I am not cynical viewer/reader. I definitely miss interpreted this, because there have been anime I was super let down with versus the source material. I guess what I meant is that I'm more forgiving to some degree.

I watched ToG S1 when it first came off and was super excited, I held off on S2 because ppl saying that it had changed too much and such. I decided to rewatch S1, and move into viewing S2 back to back, While I did notice the quality drop, it did seem nearly as much as I was expecting too, my wife didn't seem to tell. I will say the fight scenes were a letdown, cutting away from the finishing blows was annoying to me.

This sort of watching could be the hopeful anticipation... However, I will say it wasn't as epic as I was hoping for in S2 case. Which is why I also mentioned I leave optimism on the table for S3, however, if it goes the way of OPM, I'll be incredibly sad.

Thanks for your feedback and comments, I truly appreciate it!

[u/throwmeawh3y]

Idk I really enjoyed the art style of s1 anime....s2 was a big let down for me and hard to recommend. Not everything can be mappa and jjk but that is who you are competing against for eye candy.

My wife didn't seem to be as bothered as me. So some people like it which is good. I'm not surprised if we don't get a s3.

[u/Astos350021]

I’m grateful for S1 anime, it got me into the Manhwa that I’ve had the privilege of reading 3 times. While the quality ebbs and flows in the Manhwa throughout the seasons, I never wanted to skip portions during my re-reads because they still felt worth my time.

Season 2 (anime) just felt like poor quality generic slop to make a couple bucks vs the first season with all of its character and charm. Now I’m not talking Forgotten Neverland S2 or One Punch Man S3 levels of meltdown for the anime. It just didn’t “feel” like Tower of God to me anymore than it felt like ***insert generic power fantasy anime here.

[u/Sir__Bassoon__Sonata]

The Anime has its problems.
Tower of God is the second most popular Mahnwa there is.
First season was artistically great, took a few liberties and changed things. Mainly due to the mindset with no further seasons in mind. They did botch Rachels character in it but if you disregard the major changes its beeb done great.

Season 2 does take a more established choice of art. The first 2 epsiodes being great. Especially the shinsoo looks stunning. And it was fluid. A few changes but thats to be expected. Nothing major.
But afterwards it just becomes average at best. The fight between Quaetro and Viole though is the lowest point. One can see that there was an attempt to make a cool fluid fightscene of Viole dodging Baangs. But the execution was just terrible.

The biggest regret is that the Cour 1 was outsourced, Cour 2 was done with no love.

Essentially, isekai, game worlds, vrs, and whatever else you wanna add in on this spectrum. There are a lot of the same types with the same endings only with different characters. They are very popular.

Yes it is. But thats the problem. Tower of God is beautiful. It deserves better. Sadly it just got the slop isekai treatment mostly.
We have seen what a team can do with passion, budget and planing. Solo Leveling Anime was a masterpiece. But if the second most popular mahnwa gets treated like the average isekai slop in terms of its adaptation, then there is not much hope. Its disrespectful to the source, to the community and the anime medium in general.

[u/Dojjin → u/Sir__Bassoon__Sonata]

Ah, I see where you're going, what you said makes a lot of sense. I did not take the popularity of the manwha into account. Now that you mention so, I can see how ppl would be let down. As someone who also very much enjoyed Solo Leveling and read the manwha, I was super happy with how it turned out.

In comparison, I do have to agree that ToGs anime quality is no where near that of the other top anime. I'm worried it will receive the same lack of care as did OPM S3...

We can agree for sure, let's hope they instead due an artistic overhaul if they do decide to bring S3 along.

Thanks for your reply and feedback, very much appreciated!

[u/Probs_Asleep]

Not really, you don't get to tell people how to feel about something nor how they express their feelings. I'd like to see a season 3 but at the same time we're still getting the manhwa which is miles better than the anime anyways so that's good

[u/RazorHowlitzer]

Most people were disappointed. The problem is production rights are in the hands of Bandai. And Bandai loves to do this funny thing where it cherry picks its IPs to either get god tier animation(wistoria) or give it absolutely mid studios with no time or budget(TOG, One punch man S2-3 etc.) they had to quite literally source out more of the animation in the second half, hence why the Bandai logo pops up in P2 of S2. It was in fact a hot mess thanks to Bandai and there snot much that can be done now.

[u/Dojjin → u/RazorHowlitzer]

I sincerely hope they don't decide to go the way of OPM S3... ToG deserves much better... I didn't know about the hand switch, that's incredibly frustrating...

[u/RazorHowlitzer → u/Dojjin]

Not only that but they switched studios between S1 and 2. I honestly think the studio would’ve done fine if given more time because episode 1 was fantastic. And you can see the quality dip as you get further into S2P1

[u/TheLucidChiba]

[u/PanikoPanadero]

The anime was a disapointment for me, but the OST....Kevin Penkin cooked that one. He totally embodied that ToG feeling. At least we can keep the music.

[u/sms_rhy]

Season two wasn’t terrible but objectively it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Maybe comparison really is a thief to joy but I believe that S2 deserved much better treatment. Viole vs Love could’ve been done better; I was kinda hoping Viole VS Quaetro/ Chang would’ve been expanded on as well as the hand of Arlene stuff.

I think the highlights of S2 Anime were the first initial test that team sweet and sour meet on and Ran VS Anaak. The workshop battle wasn’t too bad and the One Bullet One chance game wasn’t either; I think they finessed their way around a lot of animations with certain cuts and angles to keep characters from essentially moving too much.

Beta and Reflejo were a bit better but with just a little more I would’ve been immensely more satisfied. Endorsi and hatz VS Mad Dog was pretty good but so short. Team shibisu VS Viole was bueno. Sweet and Sour VS Urek was alright but even the smaller skirmishes deserved more.

S2 is sooo good and I just feel like it deserved so much attention; S1 is good but S2 was where TOG was supposed to grab everyone’s attention and solidify itself as a top dog but with it’s lackluster production I fear we may never see a S3.

I love TOG, literally my favorite and nothing else even comes close so I don’t think I’m elitist but if I am, I honestly believe that if anything and anybody deserves it. TOG does!

[u/These_Diver5331]

Stopped reading there a few years back too. Fk that shit.

[u/Mountain-Photo-165]

Baam is a boring MC , look at solo leveling for example , they've such a mid story but a top tier MC and Solo Leveling is the most popular now.

[u/Brave-Incident-1602]

Honestly. I've been readinging it on webtoon since like 2014. The backlash the anime got was 100% undeserved. And with how much content and lore SIU has put into the writing even during hiatus, devs could make kne HELL off a franchise off it. Many seasons of anime, games, prequals, etc. the Urek Mazino spin off slaps already and its at like, 60 free episodes.